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| Case Study: Software Turns Green |
By BDTI, 4/1/2007
Vendors of signal processing technology are well aware of the impact power consumption can have on the success of a product, particularly in mobile devices where battery life is critical. But in recent months vendors have seen increased pressure to deliver lower power from an unlikely source. Environmental activists, acutely aware of the growing amount of energy consumed by personal electronics, have targeted computationally intensive signal processing algorithms as a primary source of waste.
Recently BDTI was approached by a large manufacturer of video equipment that had been harshly criticized for the energy consumption of its latest set-top-box. The device had been rated worst-in-class for energy consumption by a prominent environmental group, and the company was facing a Berkeley-wide boycott if it did not address the groups concerns.
Not finding sufficient energy savings from its PR campaign that showed the set-top-box as environmentally friendly, the company turned to BDTI for help. The result of BDTI’s analysis was surprising. While the set-top-box’s software was highly optimized, often in assembly language, the potential energy savings resulting from further optimization were much larger than expected. Because critical inner loops are often called several trillion times over the lifetime of a typical device, saving a small number of cycles can translate into enough energy savings to power a typical microwave oven for up to a year.
Realizing the value of “going green”, the company engaged BDTI to optimize the set-top-box’s software. With the software optimized, the company’s set-top-box was subsequently rated best-in-class for energy consumption by the environmental group.
To capitalize on its new green status the company signed an endorsement deal with a prominent environmental activist and launched a much more successful PR campaign. The activist, currently living in a tree on the UC Berkeley campus to protest its planned destruction, had not watched TV in weeks and was frustrated with the lack of media attention his cause had garnered. With the installation of a TV and the company’s set-top-box in the tree, the activist could not only watch his favorite shows, but grabbed headlines all over the world as the “sell out” tree guy, thereby generating invaluable publicity for the company.
To learn more about how BDTI can help you optimize for power consumption, please contact fool@bdti.com
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